You Were Made For This; How YoungLife Has Changed the Way I Look at Christianity

Happy Sunday! There’s no “Scripture Sunday” this week, but there’s something else I’d like to share. I think you all know by now that I’m a devout Christian. I love God and over the past couple of years I feel like I’ve strengthened my relationship with Him a lot. I have done this through Bible studies, confirmation classes, and especially YoungLife. Today I wanted to share with you what, in my opinion, is the most important and overlooked thing about Christianity. I came across this idea because it’s actually YoungLife’s slogan; “you were made for this.”

I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people who aren’t Christian assume that most Christians fall into one of a two categories; “perfect”-goody-two-shoes kind of people who never seem to do anything wrong or not so great (meaning rude, condescending, etc.) people who think they’re perfect. While there are obviously some people who fall into each of these stereotypes, many Christians aren’t like either at all. Not every Christian refrains from cussing, lying, stealing, underage drinking, drug use, etc. and while those are certainly not good things, they don’t make them incapable of being loved by God.

No one, not even the biggest bully at your school, not even that girl who seems to be with a new boy every week, is anymore unworthy of God’s love than I am or you are. The thing is, God’s love is greater than any love any of us have ever had for anyone. Greater than the love you feel for your boyfriend, greater than the love you feel for your siblings, and even greater than the love that your parents feel for you. Given the extreme love He gives and the horrible condition of sin that we as human beings have on our hearts, none of us are really “worthy” of His love. Despite our faults and resistance, He wants to love us unconditionally anyways. He loves us so much that He sent His only son to die the most painful, humiliating death so we don’t have to pay the ultimate price ourselves.

Out of this magnificent love, He created this wonderful world for us to enjoy. He gave us feet to explore it with and eyes to see it with. Along with the sun, the stars, the oceans, the mountains and all of those other incredible things, He thought the world needed some of us too, so He created us. You and I were carefully crafted for a purpose. You might already know what your purpose, you might think you have an idea of what it is, or you might have no idea at all. Even if you don’t know what your purpose is, never forget that you have one. The most important thing you can be is loved by Him. There is only one you and God created you for this earth just like He created the sun for this solar system or His son for us. You are so important to His plan.

That brings me to another stereotype of Christianity. Many people believe that Christians just go to church, read the Bible, and pray all the time. First of all, I’d like to say that those things are all great and don’t have to be “boring” at all. That aside, that’s not all that Christians do. A life with Christ is not a boring, confined one. It’s a beautiful, free, fulfilled life of adventure. That’s what you and I were made for. You were made to ace that test, to score that goal, to climb that mountain, to travel to that country, to sing along at that concert, to eat that legendary cake, to live your life to the fullest. You were made for a life of fun with Christ by your side.

My relationship with Christ has been strengthened so much since I realized that He designed me to live this life of adventure. I love to travel and explore all of the beautiful places He has created. I love getting home from a concert and feeling so happy and blessed that He has given me the opportunity to go and enjoy myself so much. Since I’ve started to read my Bible more and allow His love to pour into my life the way it was meant to, I have become so much happier. I encourage you to look at your life and His love this way too, it really changes everything.

As much as I absolutely love living life with Christ, it’s important to note that just because you’re leading a life with Him doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. Following God won’t prevent your life from tragedies and hardships, but it will make these awful things a little easier. Being able to turn to Scripture, prayer, and fellow God-loving friends and family members can become your best medicine for difficult times. Having a relationship with God will comfort you in knowing that He has already painted the beautiful picture that is your whole life and you’re only looking at one little corner that might seem messy.

YoungLife has played a huge role in demonstrating not only what this wild life of love and adventure can look like for me, but also what getting through struggles with God by my side can look like for me. “How could a Christian youth group really be that much fun and simultaneously that informative?” you might ask. Well, each club is approximately an hour spent playing super fun and hilarious games, watching leaders and peers participate in hysterical skits, hearing super cheesy jokes, singing both currently popular music and classic Christian songs, dancing like no one is watching, and hearing the Gospel. This takes place every Monday night during the school year and is honestly the best part of my week. Outside of YoungLife, I hang out with a few of my college-aged leaders a couple times a week. While many high school students think it’s so “cool” to hang out with college kids that often drink around/with them and do other not so positive things, YoungLife has provided high school students with college kids who love Jesus and are just all around good influences. My leaders are always there for me, whether I’m having problems with my parents, friends, school, you name it and I have cried to a YoungLife leader about it. What’s so neat about these connections is that YoungLife leaders are the best secret keepers and give the greatest advice. Plus, they usually have some Scripture that they know will help you out.

YoungLife also has camps around the world that local YoungLife groups take their students to in the fall or winter and summer. These camps are jam-packed with fun activities including crazy games, zip-lining, swimming, horseback riding, and mountain rappelling as well as opportunities to improve your relationship with your friends, leaders, and God. Camp always makes me feel so refreshed and tremendously impacted. YoungLife camp has really painted a vivid picture for me of what that adventurous relationship with Christ looks like. As the new school year and the start of YoungLife approaches, I beg you to at least try YoungLife club. It will seriously change your life for the better.

Thanks for reading! Don’t forget, you were made for this.

P.S. – Yes, I know this post might just seem like a big YoungLife ad, but it’s something I’ve really wanted to share with you. I don’t know about you, but when I find something really great I love to share it with my friends and family so they can experience it too. I think of y’all as my friends too in a sense and I wouldn’t want to keep something from you that has the potential to bring you so much joy and fulfillment. That makes sense, right?

[…] Hopefully your freshman year is like mine and you aren’t confronted with any risky circumstances just yet. My favorite ways to hangout with my friends, old and new, include going out to dinner, spending a Saturday afternoon downtown, having them over to spend the night, and meeting up after school at a restaurant like Panera to review for a big test we both have to take. All of those activities could be done as a pair or as a group! There’s a group of girls in my grade that went out to dinner before every home football game (I was invited to tag along once) then carpooled to the game together and I think that’s such a fun idea! As high school goes on you most likely will be presented with some tough situations, but surrounding yourself with people you want to be like will usually keep you in a good place. If you aren’t interested in participating in drinking, drug use, etc. and surround yourself with like-minded people, you most likely won’t face any situations in which you feel pressured to do so. If you’re a Christian and have YoungLife in your community I definitely recommend you go (I know I talk about YoungLife all the time, but I seriously can’t emphasize it enough). Not only is club itself super fun, but the college-age leaders often go to football games, high school lunches, etc. and as you form relationships with them they’ll be there for you if you ever feel excluded because of your moral limits (if you’re interested in hearing more about why I love YoungLife so much you can read my post about it here!). […]